Area of paddy cultivated in kharif season in Dakshina Kannada decreased by more than 17 per cent and in rabi by more than 15 per cent in the past decade and a half, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Officials attributed this to farmers switching over to horticulture crops and converting the area under the food crop for various other activities.

The district had 38,291 hectares under paddy in the 1999 kharif season. It came down to 31,646 hectares, a decrease by 6,645 hectares (17.35 per cent), in 2013 kharif season.

The food crop under rabi season declined from 25,195 hectares in 1999-2000 to 21,201 hectares in 2012-13, a decline of 15.85 per cent.

“Now the challenge is to save the existing area under paddy by increasing productivity and reducing production cost,” said H. Kempe Gowda, Joint Director of Agriculture, Dakshina Kannada.

He said that now the department was recommending seed treatment, soil treatment and mechanised transplanting to increase productivity and reduce production cost.

Mr. Gowda said that rice blast, is the main disease which affected the crop, coming in the way of productivity. Sowing the seeds after mixing it with carbon dizem powder and spraying it after transplanting helped in controlling the disease for over two months. It could save about half the crop.

He said that heavy rains in Dakshina Kannada resulted in leaching out of nutrients in soil resulting in alkaline condition. Then it would lose the capacity to absorb fertilizers. Hence, to bring soil to neutral condition, the department recommended the application of agriculture lime for every alternate year.

In addition, mechanised transplantation helped in increasing productivity. The department was providing seeds, chemical powder, agriculture lime and transplanting machine at 50 per cent subsidised rate to farmers.

According to Prabhakara Mayya, a progressive farmer at Nada village, near Ujire, paddy saplings should not be planted deep as they did not have mother root. They should be just planted on the surface of the slush field for roots to spread. Under the manual method, workers, planted them at six-inch depth.

When the machine is used, it plants the saplings just on the surface, with ideal spacing for the plants to breathe and spread roots. As a result, the plants grow healthy and yield more.

Source - http://www.thehindu.com/